Cables ... no longer opinion

nonoise, good to know you got it. Thanks for clarifying.

Josh is the real deal. Thanks for the help, flaxxer. 

This video demonstrates it is the geometry. The ribbons that aren't close have the spike distortion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9HrYAyVItY

That has the ribbons running side by side. That is missing the whole point of Townshend's design, which is to have the ribbon conductors extremely close together. Finding a thin enough tape, with desirable dielectric properties, and placing the ribbons the correct distance apart is the difference. All the difference, apparently, at least according to the people I talk to. Which btw, thanks for that, flaxxer

😂😂 None so blind as will not see! 😂
Thanks for the link. I read the review. Did you???!😂

I choose to review equipment and listen to music with them because they are consistently more revealing of space within a recording and produce extraordinarily good stereo imaging, Take my word for it, you have not heard truly 3D holographic imaging if you are not using a cable with this geometry. But that’s not all, this is also the best cable for bass that I have ever encountered, it can produce genuinely bone crunching lows when connected to amps and speakers that are up to the job. It won’t make your compact stand mount shake the furniture but it will let you hear just how low any speaker will go in a superbly controlled and highly entertaining fashion. This applies whether it’s a kick drum, an organ or a synthesiser, often it’s the latter that deliver the lowest notes. If you enjoy electronic, orchestral or rock music the bottom end is crucial to the full visceral experience. I’d say it is crucial whatever the music, even chamber orchestras or folk bands need to have headroom in the bass if they are to sound real, if the acoustic character of the venue is to be reproduced.

This cable is not only about bass however, I wouldn’t have been using it to review amps and speakers for over ten years if that was the case. It is also extremely revealing in an even handed way, there does not appear to be an emphasis on a particular part of the audio band, which is what a lot of supposedly detailed cables do to give the impression of transparency. There are plenty of cables that emphasize leading edges to give a strong sense of pace and many others that have a prominent midband which brings out fine detail, but it’s always at the expense of other aspects of the sound. This is fine if you want to use cables as a tone control but less so if you want to hear all of the music. The character will eventually become audible and result in a preference for particular recordings or music types because others don’t sound so good. Then the tail is wagging the dog and you lose sight of what this pursuit should be all about.

Isolda EDCT is very revealing of detail, tone colour, timing and soundstaging, you can clearly hear what a change in hardware or software is doing to the sound whether it be lowering the noise floor, improving the dynamics or making you jump about with excitement. In many ways its surprising that so few cable companies opt for this geometry, one reason is that it’s not available off the reel from an industrial cable company, Townshend has to build Isolda from the ground up and that’s very rare. It’s also not as robust as conventional stranded cables, if you bend it too much or tread on folds it will eventually die. I did abuse one cable enough to do this once, the constant equipment change of reviewing and the fact that the cables crossed a walkway was the problem, I’ve since figured out how to protect them

If you find yourself going round in circles trying to find a speaker cable that’s perfect for your system this should knock that habit on the head. If you want a filter/tone control in the form of a cable this however is not for you. Townshend Audio Isolda EDCT will show you what your system is capable of doing to an extent that might well come as a surprise. The first thing that hits you is the sense of calm that is presumably brought about by the reduction in RFI, then when the music gets going bass extension and power make themselves known, eventually however it will become apparent that you are getting more music from the system and that is easily worth the asking price. Isolda EDCT is sold in terminated pairs, below are the current prices for common lengths but pretty well any length can be supplied. Controversially Townshend also claims that uneven pairs work as well as those of equal length which will represent a saving in most systems.

This is the cable you are talking about. Someone clearly has their engineering down. I know who my money's on.

Humans vary tremendously in their ability to resolve musical details. It is not a bell shaped curve.

Actually it is. But where any given individual happens to be on that curve is by no means cast in stone. Listening is a learned behavior, a skill, and skills can be improved. 

Learn something about the human auditory system and stop focusing on hardware that is distal to the PNS and CNS.

You know the problem with using techno-babble like "distal to the PNS and CNS"? Every once in a while you run into someone who actually knows the terms, and knowing this knows word salad when he sees it.

There are people here so whack that if you say the sun rises in the east they will say you use tanning lotion therefore you lie. This is for them irrefutable logic, which if you argue makes you a shill. I wouldn't mind so much, as this kind of "thinking" means they wind up with exactly the crap level sound they deserve. But their ignorant comments may be misinterpreted by some innocent young audiophile who then winds up building their own crap system, and this perpetuates the audiophile crap cycle. 

Call out the crap. Break the cycle. Science is science, no matter the source. Attack the science if you must. That is after all the way it works. Attack the man though, only shows how pathetically little and weak your argument is. If you have nothing, itsjustme, move along please. 

Good stuff. PM coming.

Downsized to zero. Good one. 

flaxxer, So we can chalk it all up to sloppy writing then ;) lol! excellent! Sorry, but you would not believe the number of people who do come along and, well nevermind it is clear now that is not you.    

When it comes to Max you are preaching to the choir here. With me anyway. Have only had Pods and Podiums a fairly short time but that is enough to be sure Max is the real deal.  

Max has posted his article before but the first I learned of it was when he posted it here fairly recently. Seemed clear enough to me but like I said we have all kinds and the kind we have the most of is armchair electronics engineers. We had one at one point, he was so advanced he had designed interstellar propulsion systems for starships. I know. But no. Seriously. Not making this up. Designs warp drives, teleportation devices. In his mind. Same as the ones who know more EE than Max Townshend.  

So anyway like I said Max's paper got me interested. But there is only so much a guy can do, and only so fast. Been going through a number of things the last few years. Most recently Pods and Podiums. Now working on getting some F1. Or Isolda. Would be nice to have both to compare. Working on it.

Right now I have Synergistic Research Element Copper Tungsten Silver, not stock either they started with Tesla and have been modified a lot. Way better now than stock. Way better. Just really good speaker cables. Supposedly F1 are even better still.

We will see. That is why I went off. Was already looking into this pretty good, and then along comes this which seemed at first to be another one messing around where he shouldn't. Good to know we are on the same page. Not a lot of us here have this stuff. Are you UK or US or??

PS Audio- hilarious!

Look at it again- it clearly says

Max Townshend is the CEO of UK-based Townshend Audio, manufacturer of isolation devices, electronics and cables since 1975. The idea that different cables can sound different in an audio system has been a source of debate and controversy for a long time. Many audiophiles, and yes, manufacturers including Townshend, insist that different cables can make a difference in an audio system. Others dismiss this as marketing hype or snake oil. Here, Max Townshend describes an experiment for identifying differences between speaker cables.

Max Townshend. Not PS Audio! Also at the end it says,

"This article is printed with permission of Townshend Audio."  

This article by Max Townshend is very old, like ten years at least. Max himself posted the whole thing here last year. There's nothing in it about "Downsize" whatever that is. The way the OP tries to link them is deceptive and misleading.

The underlying technology is solid, which makes it a real shame the OP has to come along and sort of discredit it with this deception. The last time this was posted Max got nothing but grief from posers and wanna-bee engineers.  

As for me, I do not pretend to understand the engineering anywhere near well enough to know whether it works or not. My approach is always "the proof is in the pudding". I am working on getting some of these to find out for myself. Only way to know for sure.

Meantime, if the OP made an honest mistake, fine. Let us know. It sure sounds to me though like a deliberate attempt to go for a free ride on Max Townshend's coat tails.  

What say you, flaxxer?